Intersecting Race and Gender Cues are Associated with Perceptions of Gay Men’s Preferred Sexual Roles

Abstract

Preferences for anal sex roles (top/bottom) are an important aspect of gay male identity, but scholars have only recently begun to explore the factors that covary with these preferences. Here, we argue that the gendered nature of both racial stereotypes (i.e., Black men are masculine, Asian men are feminine) and sexual role stereotypes (i.e., tops are masculine, bottoms are feminine) link the categories Asian/bottom and the categories Black/top. We provide empirical evidence for these claims at three levels of analysis: At the cultural level based upon gay men's stereotypic beliefs about others (Study 1), at the interpersonal level based upon gay men's perceptions of others' sexual role preferences (Study 2), and at the intrapersonal level based upon racially diverse men's self-reported sexual roles on a public hookup website (Study 3). These studies offer the first systematic evidence of linkages between race categories and sexual roles in gay male communities.

Sexual Positioning Among Men Who Have Sex With Men: A Narrative Review

“…Gagnon and Simon’s (1984) theory of sexual scripting highlights that sexual interactions can be informed by sexual ‘scripts’ derived from cultural scenarios, interpersonal interactions, and intrapersonal characteristics that frame the way people experience different sexual interactions. Masculinity stereotypes may create cues that could be an important precursor to sexual scripts between men and may manifest differently for MSM and MSMW (Husbands et al, 2013; Lick & Johnson, 2015). From our review, it is unclear how sexual scripts may differ for MSM compared to MSMW or how the cultural meanings and values behind masculinity may affect sexual position decision-making within sub-cultures of MSM.…”

Sexual Behavior Varies Between Same-Race and Different-Race Partnerships: A Daily Diary Study of Highly Sexually Active Black, Latino, and White Gay and Bisexual Men

“…We believe community-level interventions designed to reduce racial and ethnic biases within gay and bisexual communities may serve to reduce homophily in sexual partnerships and thus may help to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in HIV incidence among GBM. In addition, researchers might consider adapting demonstrated effective individual- and community-level interventions to include components that challenge racism and race-based stereotypes that exist in gay and bi sexual communities (Grov et al, 2015a; Lick & Johnson, 2015). …”

“…Furthermore, and to our knowledge, no such studies have examined the ways in which sexual behavior itself may change based on whether one is partnering with someone of the same or a different race. That is, given radicalized stereotypes regarding the sexual behavior particularly of racial and ethnic minorities (for are view, see Grov et al, 2015a; Lick & Johnson, 2015), we know little about whether GBMSMs’ sexual behavior varies based on whether they are with a partner of a same or different race.…”

Top or Bottom? Varsity youth talk about gay sexuality in a Stepping Stones Workshop: Implications for sexual health

“…To quote Foucault (1980, 212) with other dynamics of race and class also point to the importance of research in this area (Fields et al 2015;Herbst et al 2014;Lick and Johnson 2015). The interaction of racial, classed and sexual scripts in sexual role performances and practice has been shown to influence the lived experiences and performances of gender and sexuality amongst gay men in a South African context Masvawure et al 2015) and attest to the importance of including this population group to understand how intersectionality matters for sexual well-being (Rabie and Lesch 2009).…”